1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a value-added information-exchanging network service, and in particular, by way of example but not limitation, to a Business-to-Business (B2B) engine capable of interfacing with both a telecommunications network and a service provider for facilitating information interexchange therebetween.
2. Background and Objects of the Present Invention
The growing accessibility of information on the Internet has made a great variety of content available. Typically, users access this content at a fixed home or office site through an Internet Service Provider (ISP). Content providers on the Internet forward their content, along with advertisements or other commercial information, through the ISP directly to the user. Whereas, some ISPs currently maintain cache, e.g., Yahoo and America On Line (AOL) by providing additional content, most ISPs are purely conduits of information, and as such are not expected to have increased value as this technology and service matures.
A concurrent, more recent development is wireless Internet access by mobile phone users. Due to the convergence of telecommunications and the Internet, a growing variety of devices are becoming multipurpose and are now available to access the Internet wirelessly, e.g., cell phones, personal data assistants (PDAs) or other communications devices. As with ISPs, however, Internet content providers are using existing telecommunications equipment as a mere conduit for passing information therethrough, thereby marginalizing the perceived value of these physical connections owned by the telecommunications operators. This paradigm of operation is illustrated in FIG. 1 and is generally designated therein by the reference numeral 100, where a number of content providers, e.g., restaurant information 105, weather information 110 and other such portals 115, channel the respective data through a xe2x80x9cpipexe2x80x9d, i.e., the telecom operators"" equipment 120, to a realtime user.
In view of the high cost of telecommunications network infrastructure and the need to avoid perceived obsolescence, telecommunications system operators must restructure the interface between the content provider and user to better exploit advantages in the technological convergence. In particular, a system and methodology offering an alternative paradigm avoiding the marginalization of the telecommunications infrastructure and services and avoiding loss of identity is needed. In addition, the paradigm 100 of FIG. 1 fails to make use of any realtime information which is inherently provided within a serving telecommunications network, such as location status, pertaining to the mobile subscriber, an area which will be critical in numerous future applications.
Exemplary prior art methods related to the location and information provided to and from a mobile station includes U.S. Pat. No. 5,559,520 which generally describes tracking the location change of a user using a GPS system and providing information from a dispatcher to the user regarding a vehicle""s geographic coordinates.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,926,108 generally describes providing movie information to a pager. The pager first request information from the system, which in turn determines the pager""s location and sends movie information based on his location and optionally reserve tickets for the pager user.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,131,028 generally describes providing a specific predefined feature based on a user geographic location. These features could be location-based call forwarding or predefined business establishment directions.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,930,699 generally describes providing information about a business based on a location of a mobile station. The cell identity is determined by the system and information regarding a business in that area is sent to the mobile station.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,091,956 generally describes a system that provides services about places and events a mobile computer encounters in their current location or potential destinations. The mobile computer is informed of events related to places the user is willing to visit. Based on this information, the mobile computer may respond, avoid entirely, communicate with other people, or modify his plans in view of such events.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,108,533 generally describes providing a mobile station with ability to search, using keywords, information in a database. Such information might require the knowledge of the location of the mobile station and search for the keyword provided by the mobile station in that area location database.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,115,611 generally describes having an information center connected to a plurality of mobile terminals. The mobile terminals accessing location information as well as other information helpful to the mobile terminal user from the information center. The information center is used for accumulating information and/or services from the mobile terminals and providing information to the mobile terminal related to the mobile terminal location information.
It is, therefore, an object of certain embodiment(s) of the present invention to provide a new system, scheme, and/or methodology for mobile Internet usage, which offer more value to the telecommunications network operators and better exploit technological advantages of the network.
It is a further object that the system, scheme, and/or methodology of certain embodiment(s) of the present invention better utilize the realtime information available in telecommunications networks about mobile subscribers and the content available, thereby leveraging the network capabilities to generate revenue.
It is another object of certain embodiment(s) of the present invention that an enabler described herein leverage the realtime capabilities of a telecommunications network.
It is an additional object of certain embodiment(s) of the present invention that an enabler be capable of better personalizing services based upon user situation, e.g., user location, user status, etc.
Methods, systems, and arrangements facilitate information interexchange between a telecommunications network and an information service provider. For example, in accordance with certain embodiment(s), a business-to-business (B2B) engine includes one or more logic modules for interfacing with the telecommunications network and with the information service provider. The B2B engine facilitates the reporting of, e.g., realtime information from the telecommunications network to the information service provider. This realtime information may include subscriber unit location that is proactively sent by the subscriber unit to the B2B engine for forwarding to the information service provider. To avoid possibly congesting the telecommunications network, the B2B engine is empowered to monitor the number of proactively-transmitted location messages and to limit them if they exceed a defined threshold. For example, the B2B engine may monitor them on a location area level and compare the total number of such location messages to an adjustable threshold. If the total number exceeds the threshold, then the B2B engine selects one or more subscriber units using any of a number of criteria to receive an order to lower the number of location messages being transmitted from those subscriber units. In this manner, a finite resource such as a control channel can be ensured to be available for telecommunications services.